Birmingham City in China - day 10

Friday:

Blues are on to the third leg of this tour and it's the industrial city of Shenyang.

The journey from Beijing to Shenyang is by a four hour train journey, one that doesn't particularly please the players who are all crammed into the only first-class carriage. One member of the squad grumbles: 'Manchester United wouldn't travel like this'.

DVDS, ipads and sleep is what keeps most the squad occupied for the journey, but it's interesting to see Michel flicking through an English phrase book next to his close pal Enric 'Ricky' Valles.

We arrive at Shenyang's Sheraton Hotel around midday and, although the accommodation isn't up to the players' usual standards, their moaning stops when they arrive at the nearby stadium just a short coach journey away.

Shenyang Olympic Stadium was built for and hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympics' football tournament and it a very impressive facility. It has a City of Manchester Stadium feel about it and is without doubt the best arena geared for football that Birmingham have visited out here in China so far.

In the familiar humid conditions, Blues run through their usual training drills with the highlight being half-an-hour of finishing practice. My observations: Stuart Parnaby clearly isn't a finisher, Valles and David Murphy both have a mean shot while Kevin Phillips is as clinical as ever.

Top government officials are said to be coming to tomorrow's game against Liaoning Hongyun. I'm later told that the chaps in purple t-shirts hanging around the stadium trying to look unimportant are in fact secret police.